[alexey-salmin]

I think it's not that you don't stumble, it's just that you avoid them concsiously or subconsciously.

For me it's almost 20 years now but the reflex is still "check the man quickly, then go to full html docs if necessary". It developed very early and then I never applied enough force to break it.

When thinking of my early Linux usage experience I guess the primary reasons why the reflex developed were the following:

1) In the beginning you barely understand what's happening and turn to docs very frequently, often feeling desperation by that point. Figuring out a complex interface in this state of mind feels extremely frustrating, because you're already in process of figuring out something else. Man/less interface is very limited but it's also comforting in its simplicity.

2) When you finally subside to the "info xxx should give you access to the complete manual" instruction it shows you the same man page but in a frustrating interface which feels like a cruel joke (you're desperate to solve something, remember). I didn't have doc packages installed and I had no way of knowing that at the time. I still think it's a horrible usability solution and if "info" showed the install instructions instead the story could have been different.

[klodolph]

Issue #1 can be sidestepped by using the HTML docs, which are still info pages.

Issue #2, I think, is a packaging issue related to licensing and the peculiarities of Debian packaging rules. Normally, any time you install a package, you get the man pages and info pages.

[alexey-salmin]

Everything can be sidestepped, it's not the point. The point is for some users (a majority I suspect) info pages have the entry barrier too high. Not very high per se, but too high compared to what you normally expect from documentation which is no entry barrier at all. That happens due to an unfortunate combination of circumstances most of which have nothing to do with info pages format itself which is quite good.